Former Irish International and Sunderland FC Chairman Niall Quinn was at Balbriggan Community College on Monday, April 27 to launch the Sporting Fingal Community Trust.
Sporting Fingal has been in existence since 2007, finishing third place in their debut season in League of Ireland First Division last year as well as reaching the FAI Ford Cup Quarter-finals. Liam Buckley’s side are well on their way to making a push for promotion this season.
The decision to establish Sporting Fingal was taken as part of Fingal County Council’s overall Football Development Plan for the county and the next element is the proposed construction of the Fingal Multi-Sports Complex at Lusk.
The Community Trust is the first initiative of its kind to be associated with a League of Ireland club and its work officially kicked-off this morning with a one-week intensive ESOL (English Spoken as Other Language) programme delivered by experienced County Dublin VEC tutors to non-Irish students of Balbriggan Community College and Riversdale Community College, Dublin 15.
Directly associated with Sporting Fingal FC, the Sporting Fingal Community Trust is a groundbreaking venture which will provide and lead a range of programmes, through the vehicle of football, that address social issues in the Fingal area, such as early school leaving, alcohol and substance abuse, literacy and numeracy problems, and racism.
Programmes will be managed and delivered on an inter-agency basis between Fingal County Council, County Dublin V.E.C., An Gárda Síochána, the Health Service Executive, Barnados and FAS.
Speaking at the launch, Sporting Fingal Community Trust Chair, Pat Queenan said, “We’re delighted to have Niall with us today as we’ve been hugely influenced by what Sunderland FC has done through the Sunderland Foundation.
“We have used Sunderland’s model to develop the Sporting Fingal Community Trust as a body that helps the agencies involved deliver education and early intervention programmes”, she explained.
“The setting up of the Trust also shows a concrete commitment by Sporting Fingal F.C. to being a real community based football club.”
Councillor Ciaran Byrne, Chairman of the Fingal Development Board, also commenting at the launch, explained how “the ethos of the Fingal Development Board is based on interagency co-operation and collaboration.
“I see huge scope for the member agencies of the Board to participate in the range of programmes that will be delivered by the Sporting Fingal Community Trust”.
Secretary of Sporting Fingal FC, John O’Brien, also added: “Being the first League of Ireland Football Club to offer a fully charitable Community Trust as part of our organisation shows the clubs commitment to our founding principles of being a real community football club.
“With the recent launch of the Sporting Fingal Special Olympics football team, Sporting Fingal Power Soccer Club for power wheelchair users, a third-level education scholarship scheme for club players and ongoing work the club does with schools in the county, the Sporting Fingal Community Trust will further extend the reach of Sporting Fingal FC to more members of our community.”
Special guest for the launch, Niall Quinn, was delighted to give his backing to the initiative.
He said today: “I have known Sporting Fingal FC manager Liam Buckley since we were kids playing for our local schoolboy club, Manortown, and I am thrilled to see what a fantastic job and he and John O’Brien have done to develop the club from scratch.
“I believe there are many similarities between our Sunderland Foundation and the Sporting Fingal Community Trust. The emphasis is on generating links with the community and I’ve seen that it can work. We have a supporter base passionate about their local club and I’ve no doubt Sporting Fingal will help create that association through the initiatives they are undertaking such as the Community Trust.”